"Not even close."

She was in a dream, a wonderful awful dream, she knew that much, could feel that strange and almost blurry fuzz that drifted in the corners of her mind, always shifting and changing before things could even start to make sense. But this one? This one Nymeria knew like the back of her hand as the dark visions plagued her with memories that would never be forgotten, watching as from above her own body, a far younger version of herself that still had the blessing of innocence in her golden eyes found a creature that looked like herself, only shorter, bruised and bloodied and broken.

How could she of been so stupid? How could she of been so naive? How could she not of felt his disgusting and vile intentions and know just what he was when she gave into cursed curiously and wasted her breath on healing him, her magic flowing through her veins and into his to make him whole, nursing him back to health with ever gentle fingertips, succumbing to his every need just so she could hear stories fall from his lips about the world outside of the Moor, about creatures so different than she, so different than the inhabitants of the forest she knew as envy pooled in her gut ever so tightly.

Perhaps at the start of their tentative friendship, he'd been sincere, perhaps Bróinn had looked upon her ethereal features bathed in gold and seen something holy, seen something worthy and good...but the temptation of greed grew too much and he succumbed to it by taking the one thing that made her her...and Nymeria didn't know which was the worst one, the fact that he had always meant to harm her the moment their eyes met, or the fact that the more time he spent with her, the less he seen her as something to be awed at but instead, something easy to ruin...and ruin her he did.

But before she could delve deeper into the dream, before she could watch the aftermath of blood spilled on what was once a night filled with love and trust, when healing had turned to chaos and gold had turned to red...she was suddenly ripped from her unconscious by landing on something soft with a loud grunt and a rough curse from whatever was beneath her, tasting some stringy and silky in her mouth that made her gag in disgust as she pulled it out with trembling fingers only to find the same weird substance staining them...and she realized that it looked like a spiders web...except much, much thicker.

And when her gaze slowly drifted up, it was to find thick cocoons of white silk, strung up over the looming trees of the decaying forest with what she was assuming was the rather large corpses of the other victims who hadn't somehow managed to escape their webbed prison before what she was assuming was going to be one very large spider would drain them of their morality to sate its hunger.

"Lass! Ge'off-"

The familar voice grunted at her, a strained sounding thing that was almost breathless and choked like the life was being drained out of him, and when she looked down to where she was sure it was coming from, it was to see Dwalin's grumpy eyes glaring back at her as he struggled beneath her, and she would of liked to say that she leapt up immediately with apologies on her tongue because she was sure she'd almost crushed the poor dwarf, however, she'd be lying, because it took her at least a few minutes to grab her bearings and swallow her fear of the apparently huge spiders that thought of her and the company as prey.

However when realisation did finally dawn upon her, she was swift to pull herself off of him with a pained grunt that she couldn't stop from slipping past her bloodstained lips, whole body aching and still covered in the silver webbing that was sticky and disgusting as she muttering about how sorry she was under her breath as she tried, and failed, to stand on her own two legs once more because it seemed that her steep with unconscious had just made everything so much worse because she couldn't catch a bastard break apparently.

It seemed all the others were in the same predicament, cursing and grumbling at the thick shit clung to them like a second skin, the faè feeling herself shiver in barely concealed horror at the thought of just what would of happened to her if they hadn't been saved, her blood filled with pure chaos, the likes of which many hadn't seen for eons, drained and wasted for a creatures meal. How utterly anticlimactic for the rather depressing mess she called a life, and yet when she turned to find her hobbit just to tell him that, it was to find that she couldn't even see him. "Bilbo? Bilbo? Where's my hobbit?"

"I'm up here!"

But just as she looked up to catch his gaze, relief unfurling in her chest like a flower in bloom as they smiled at one another in adoration...a spider suddenly leapt up from behind the tree branch he was standing on, and Nymeria screamed as she watched her hobbit fall into the abyss below, struggling against the large beast as she finally, finally summoned the strength to stand on her own feet with her eyes flashing dangerously, face shifting into a terrible snarl as she ran towards where he fell, ignoring the shouts behind her as the rest of the company followed in some desperate attempt to keep up.

"Nymeria!"

She heard the shout, she knew the voice and could hear the terrified panic that laced it, but just as she glanced over her shoulder to see the horror in Fili's eyes, her body was suddenly thrown off of her feet and onto the ground below, her breath stolen from her winded lungs as she gasped, groaning as agony laced it's way through her flesh instead of her chaos, forcing her further into the dirt that stabbed into her fragile skin until everything started to hurt most consumingly. But that was soon the least of her problems as something dropped on top of her, and her vision adjusted to large pinches mere inches away from her bloody face.

It's breath smelled disgusting was her first thought, and she was definitely going to die here if she didn't get the hell up being her second...before her eyes flashed into something dangerous and deadly as she scowled, placing her struggling legs against its weirdly hard stomach and pushed with all of her might until it had no choice but to give, kicking it off of her mortal corpse and then placing a well timed swing at it's stupid face when it tried to lunge for her again as she got up swiftly, something feral sounding slipping through her lips as she crouched low to the ground and growled, keeping her gaze trained on the creature like it was a dare.

Magic may of abandoned her, her chaos dull in her wicked veins that tempted the fates like a game...but Nymeria didn't need such things to be deadly, and it was about time she remembered that she was a garden of red agonies, her pain had made her powerful, had made her vengeful, that her teeth had been sharp and her body still a weapon...and that her hands had been stained with blood long before her chaos had taken over.

The spider screeched again, but this time, when it came at her, the young faè was ready as she bared her teeth and then threw herself into the air as the breeze danced over her like a familar embrace, flipping mid jump to land upon its back and then wrapping her arms around its flailing legs and pulling. The sound of it's awful screams drowned out by the pounding of her heart, getting louder and louder like the rumbling drums of war as these was a sickening sound of something wet being torn, and then Nymeria fell back with the creatures legs in hand as it dropped limply to the ground, almost as dead as she felt inside.

She took a breath, groaning miserably as agony began to blossom once more, but she refused to listen to its calling as she stood on unsteady feet, throwing the still twitching legs to the ground with a snarl...but then she heard something rushing towards her, faster than she could even begin to comprehend as she tried to turn, catching a glimpse of a far larger creature heading straight for her with no signs of stopping. She only had a second, just a second to brace herself for their collision...only to watch as a familar sword was suddenly embedded into its side with squelch, yanked out in the same breath with a spray of blood coating the floor in a crimson embrace.

"Do you think we're on even ground yet?" Fili asked with a grin, saving her again, twirling his sword in his talented hands that had something in her chest catching, leaving something akin to awe in its wake as she looked down at him, covered in spider web and dirt, his blonde hair soaked with grey ash and red sin splattered across his pale cheek...and she was struck by how purposeful longing could be as it built a home inside of her, and she wondered if it was just her hobbit that she'd stumble out of hell's burning damnation for, that she'd cheat death for, that she'd crawl to when she could no longer walk, no longer fly.

"Not even close." Nymeria said instead, a short laugh escaping her bruised lips that still hadn't healed as she pulled herself to stand taller, dark eyes flickering with her dull chaos as they looked upon each other like they were the only two beings in the whole of Middle Earth left...before more and more spiders began to descend from their kingdom of the rotting trees, pinches sharp and deadly, desperate to plunge into fragile flesh and drain to satisfy their everlasting hunger as their horrible screeching cries filled the night like an ominous howling.

"I really do miss your magic, amrâlime." There was a hint of fondness in his voice, a tired exhaustion that was almost amused as he flipped his loyal blade to settle more comfortably against calloused hands, ready to face to horde with a steely determination in the blue of his gaze that she feared she'd drown in if she lingered too long.

You're not the only one, the faè thought, smiling while he was turned away from her, before she too, looked towards the creatures that could very well be their doom as she took a breath, closed her eyes and then took a step behind herself, and another, and another...until she finally pressed her back, her mortality, her wounded scars of grief and betrayal, her ravaged ruin against his own to feel pain's shocked horror at her ability to be weak, to let her fragile longing blister against him...and trust that she wouldn't be destroyed as she let her burdens go with what could be their last moments.

"I'll watch your back if you watch mine, dwarf."

And then, the spiders were upon them, practically climbing over the corpses of their brethren to bring the company to their journey's end, more and more seemingly coming from the sky themselves, and whenever one was knocked down it seemed that two took its place. Fili's sword could only swing for so long, and her bloodied hands were getting weaker and weaker by the moment, even after she'd been handed a knife by the dwarf, even when Bofur came to their aid alongside Thorin, it didn't seem like it would be enough, it would never be enough as she bit down the agonized scream that wanted to escape from her raw mouth.

But when her hand faltered, the knife slipping from her palm stained crimson, she truly thought that this would be the end of her so called immortal life, which really, truly, was an embarrassing fate indeed because she was meant to be the faè, the faè, the only creature in existence that could control chaos, the sinful disease that hadn't been touched for eons, that had no reason to blister and fester like prayers to a dying man lips, she was the one who'd tamed it like it was a vicious beast, who'd become one with her destruction, to her ravaged salvation that she'd formed herself...and yet here she was, about to die by being overwhelmed by a bloody spider of all bastard things.

Thwack!

The arrow missed her by mere inches, it's sharp tooth biting her cheek as it embedded itself into the spider that had leapt for her...but she knew that it wasn't one of Kili's, his had never smelt like that, looked like that...and when she glanced up with a cautious look in her dark eyes...she realised that they weren't half alone as they had once throught.

"Elves?" Nymeria muttered quietly, still panting for breath as she squinted up at the trees where the lithe figures leapt, dancing through the rotting bark like they were born to do so. Their arrows nothing short of deadly as they moved through the air, cutting it with sharp slits that never seemed to miss as they buried themselves in the spiders thick hides, their dying screeches music to the faè's ears as she grinned darkly at their massacre...she'd never been keen on spiders, snakes she could handle, insects of every kind, twisted wolves larger than a horse, maimed deers with far too many eyes, she'd adored them all.

But spiders? Spiders had always made her skin crawl.

"Elves." Thorin confirmed darkly, saying the word as if it were a curse, practically spitting it out through clenched teeth as he scowled, watching them as she did, and not even noticing when Fili left his side to stumble over towards her and bring her closer to the rest of the dwarves that stood in a circle. He was quick to pull her in their depths with his rough hand holding her forearm, helping her stand and holding her as close as he dared as she leaned on him, her bloody palm against his shoulder as she took desperate breaths that made her lungs ache, her eyes closing as she tried not to start sobbing at the pain that had made its vengeful presence known.

"Easy, lass. I've got you, I've got you." He said, gaze swift to sweep around her body as she rested her head against his shoulder in exhaustion, feeling a phantom sting of pain at every cut and bruise upon her flesh that he hadn't been quick enough to protect. But unfortunately, before they could even blink, they were suddenly surrounded once more, only this time, it was by the elves, their weapons pointed straight at them and the company's just the same as the tension rose and lingered and became thick through the dirty air filled with disease.

"Don't think I won't kill you, dwarf, it would be my pleasure."

One of the elves spat, monotone voice somehow holding a certain kind of venom as he glared down at them all in disgust...and for a moment, Nymeria thought that Thorin would say fuck it and run him through with his sword anyway, the look in his eyes a vicious rage that she knew better than any creature as it blistered inside him to draw out any other kind of rational thought like it was a omen. But then he did something that suprised her, shocked her actually as he glanced over towards her, taking in the way she could barely stand on her own two feet as she trembled against his nephew...and then he began to lower his sword with a sigh.

But then there was a scream, an awful familar scream that had her heart dropping as they all spun around...to see Kili on his back with a spiders pinches moving ever closer to his face as he shouted and yelled, struggling against it as the company howled his name in terror, unable to move, unable to even try...and for a second, but only a second, she could feel some kind of heat upon her flesh and looked down to see swift glimmer of glowing red as it laced it's way over the faè's knuckles, the chaos as gone as quickly as it had came...but it had been there all the same.

Her head shot up sharply, wondering if she could risk it, wondering if that small flicker could be powerful enough to save him through she had no idea how she'd even consumed it in the forest where it had been rendered useless, but before she had a chance to even try, a red-haired elf moved through the trees, burying her arrows into its hide, his saviour rescuing him from a rather disgusting fate indeed as Kili stared up at her in awe, wide-eyed and his mouth hanging open, looking like he'd just seen evidence of true magic in the world, a more natural kind than the one she commanded...and the whole company seemed to breath a sigh of relief at his survival.

And instead of death by spiders...it seemed that now, all they had to worry about was their capture by elves, a rather great change of fate indeed. However, unseen to Nymeria once more, her fingers began to boil with red agony, thriving in the intense emotions, the fear, the anger...not knowing that was because all those years ago, when the Mirkwood elves had blocked the faè's magic from reaching their sanctuary...they'd never accounted for something as dark and as dangerous as chaos, and now, it was only a matter of finding out how much destruction could be caused if it's commander was pushed far enough.